


Her Home

by Oneshotshipper



Series: A (Dysfunctional) Family in Time [1]
Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cheesy, Following the events of the video game, Hat Kid speaks more than canon, Humor, Oneshot, Spoilers, Spoilers for end game and whole game, inward reflection, kinda a character study, wow one game has taken over my life shocker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 16:16:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14168712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oneshotshipper/pseuds/Oneshotshipper
Summary: Hat Kid reflects upon leaving the planet and the weirdos who inhabit it. And decides to go home. Likely part 1 in a future series of related oneshots following the events of the game.





	Her Home

She had done it. She wiped her eyes of her last remaining tears, noting her progress on the tracking meter. She was so close to being home after all this time and trouble, and Hat Kid could not wait. It felt like it had been a lifetime since Hat Kid had left adventuring in this cool spaceship and now she was brining all of her souvenirs and gifts she found back home! She spun in her captain’s chair, heart racing with anticipation and relief as her spaceship entered the galaxy of her own home planet.

She had gotten back here in record time (after dealing with that planet of jerks, most of who had tried to kill her at one point) and while managing to conserve her Time Pieces. She’d set off from that strange (but fun) planet with 39. _I’m not selfish! Or greedy! See?! I can share!_ Still, thinking about what she had done should have left Hat Kid feeling that anxiety and fear. The adults on her planet were sticklers about the Time Pieces, and how they should be used. But Hat Kid… could not just have left Mustache Girl alone with no protection, even after all she’d done. And she could fight the bad guys of the Mafia again with just one anyway without resorting to going completely power-crazy. Like yikes, that had been weird.  

_“Don’t you wanna fight evil, Kid?!”_

_Hat Girl had shaken her head, uncertainty clouding her expression. “No. I just wanna go home.”_

They were not friends, for she didn’t like the girl and was sure that Mustache Girl hated her, but Kid was not a hero. She didn’t want to fight crime or beat up bad guys, unless she had to. She just wanted to have a little fun now and then, make some friends, and just do what she was supposed to do. Get the Time Pieces, get home. That was it, and that was what drove her.

So why did she feel so… empty? She let out a dramatic huff, her spinning stopping as she studied the vast emptiness of space. Empty. Not so different from the lack of a soul apparently. Stupid Snatcher, Kid thought. Creepy jerk had stolen her soul and tried to double-cross her. Of course, most people on that planet tried to double-cross her. She literally had to wipe them off her ship like a stain! She couldn’t have gotten away from them all faster!

But it wasn’t all bad, she supposed. Snatcher had been kinda a good BFF when he hadn’t been trying to obliterate her from existence or make her sign some of those papers. Being a movie star with DJ Grooves had been fun. The Conductor… okay, even he was fun too, and was funny when he yelled. The Goats…She was feeling loss, sadness because of the departure of her slightly-awful newfound friends. Or rather, her departure. Home. Home was where she had to be!

_Am I making the wrong choice? Should I have stayed and been as a weirdo as all of them?_ The thoughts left her mind as Hat Kid’s planet came into view of her ship’s windows, and she gasped with surprise, a large smile quickly coming on her face. She climbed out of her seat with one last dramatic spin that Grooves would have been proud of, and stood on her toes to peer out the window, pressing her nose up to the glass. Home! Home, home, home! Mission accomplished! Hat Kid knew this and could count on the adults of her planet welcoming her back with fame and glory! They would be excited to know of all the things she had brought back and what she had learned on her extended vacation.

“Get lost!” A sudden voice said over the radio consoles, the bright lights of the ship’s dashboard blinking repeatedly with the message she was receiving from the planet below as she came into orbit. Those words were not the same that had been said before, but… They struck her a bit and she attempted to forget it. It wasn’t important that her previous enemies had believed in her enough to fight the other little girl. Nope.

“No!” Hat Kid replied with a huff, “I’ve had a really long day. Days. Whatever. It’s me! I’m coming home!”  

“Hat Kid?” Said the speaker, and their voice turned notably friendlier. “You were supposed to arrive 23 days ago! We feared something terrible had happened to you!”

“Nah, I took care of everything easily,” Hat Kid replied nonchalantly with a bit of pride in her voice. Just because she was little, did not mean she was incompetent. It was funny to watch people underestimate her. “I’m ready to land now,” she urged, hesitantly climbing back in the large chair, anxiety crawling in her stomach.

“Oh! Yes! Clear to land,” the voice said, and Hat Kid was really going to. She was going to land and have fun on a planet that was beautiful and hers and …

She blinked.

_Boring. Predictable._

_CHILD IS PREDICTABLE._

And she smiled. She hesitated, hands held stiffly at the controls. Even though they weren’t friends anymore, Mustache Girl had shocked Hat Kid when she proclaimed them friends after barely knowing one another. Not the best example of a strong friendship, but it had been more than anything she had at home. Home. Home was where you went to relax and feel safe and have fun with people you loved. Hat Kid had been yearning for Home for a very long time. Of course, Home wasn’t where people tried to kill you at every turn, she thought. Or illegally not pay you for your amazing stardom and acting skills. She glanced back up at the vault, towards the Time Pieces that had helped and hindered her this entire time. She knew what they did, and knew from adults that time travel caused more trouble than it helped anybody. She was responsible with them, and had done the right thing! She had!

But… Home was somewhere where you had someone waiting for you. She had watched more than enough cartoons to know about that. Who exactly was waiting for her down there? Hat Kid swallowed, tightening her grip on the controls.

_I had enemies. Bad guys, who tried to hurt me._

_But now they are my friends._

_Or… at least not trying to kill me._

Oh well, it was good enough for her. Giving up such a long dream, Hat Kid did eventually move the controls, back in the direction she had come from. It felt right, even though she ignored the voice rising in panic on the speaker system, eventually just shutting it off, all with a happy smile on her face.

_I’m a little girl with a spaceship and a hat. I can do what I want!_

She was going home.

And hey, if she was returning to a planet of jerks, they’d all have to be jerks together then. As the Mafia knew, Hat Kid could be (just a little) of a jerk herself.


End file.
